Gilmore's Aides Confident He's Ahead

Tucker Watkins, a party leader in southern Virginia who has attended nearly a dozen local meetings over the past month, said Gilmore appears to have a slight advantage in that part of the state because he is better organized.

"Marshall has got some good people, but I don't think he has the depth of organization on the paid side," Watkins said. "When you try to deal with all these little meetings all over Virginia at one time, it's a huge task."

Marshall alleges that Gilmore's political organization is starting to play rough. He said some party leaders in Hampton Roads, where Marcus said Gilmore is getting near universal support, are declining to cooperate with his efforts to obtain information about meeting dates and filing deadlines.

"We are experiencing some difficulty with a lack of civility," Marshall said.

But Marshall may be benefiting from personal hostility that some GOP activists feel toward Gilmore, whom they accuse of being dismissive of them when he was governor.

"I have told Bob, 'All you have to do is get all the people who don't like Jim Gilmore to come to the convention and you would beat him 10 to 1,' " Klinge said.

Marshall also stands to broaden his base of support by reaching out to supporters of Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va). Davis, a moderate, spent years preparing to run for the Senate, but abandoned those plans when he was unable to get the state party to hold a primary instead of a convention.

But James E. Hyland, chairman of the Fairfax County Republican Committee, said he has "not seen a big wave" of Davis loyalists coming out for Marshall.

"There are supporters of his who have signed up, but I think it is more to support the party than to try to influence the convention," he said. Hyland added: "I've got to assume [Gilmore] is ahead of the game, but Bob Marshall is doing everything he can."